For the second time in a week, head coach Mark Richt said he doesn't expect to hire a new defensive coordinator until sometimes after the bowl season is complete.

Richt made the statement following practice Tuesday morning, Georgia's final workout in Athens before convening in Shreveport, La. for the Independence Bowl against Texas A&M.

"I think it will be more after the bowl games," said Richt. "We'll get it done. We'll get a good one (man)."

Richt was asked if he had contacted former Indianapolis Colts coach and good friend Tony Dungy to get his take on any potential candidates.Richt said he hasn't.

"I didn't think to call him," Richt said. "But he would be a good one to talk to."

Christmas comes early for Bobos

As the father of five young children ranging in age from 2-5, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo joked that he's had to make special arrangements with Santa Claus since he's going to be in Shreveport Christmas day.

"Santa's coming early to our house," Bobo said. "We wrote him a letter, he wrote back and said if they're nice to mom, he will come early."

Bobo said Santa will visit his home Wednesday.

Apparently, Santa's going to need extra room in his sleigh.

"I think one's getting at ATV, a Kawasaki for one of them, a Princess jeep for another, a basketball goal for the oldest one," Bobo said. "I know we've got the last two things, (wife Lainie) put them together; she does it all. She puts toys together and everything."

Boykin "saves" extra work

It's a been a bowl-practice tradition under Richt on the final day of workouts before Christmas to have a player step forward and "sing" his teammates out of having to do extra gassers.Tuesday, sophomore Brandon Boykin was up to the task.

"We did some conditioning. We were going to run 10 half-gassers unless somebody could sing, or produce some kind of Christmas song," Richt said. "Somebody had to stand up and sing a verse or two of a song. Boykin jumped up. It was Chester Adams for years. He would sing 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.' He'd do a great job with that, but we needed a new one by Boykin jumped up and sang something about Mistletoe. I'm not sure what the song was, but he sang it well. He cut those gassers in half, so that was a good deal. Everybody was glad about that."

Richt said that Boykin's pipes saved the Bulldogs over 500 yards of running.

The grades are in

Richt had good news regarding fall semester.

His Bulldogs apparently passed with flying colors.

"We've got very good news. Everybody is eligible for the bowl. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I was told we had 43 guys over 3.0 and we're not sure of the team GPA, but I know it's over 2.7, I don't know how much over," he said. "No one has any real issues going into the spring with grade point average and all the number of hours needed is very manageable for everybody. It was really a very successful semester academically."

Richt speaks with Curran, Jones

Richt said he has spoken with both safety Reshad Jones and linebacker Rennie Curran, each of whom is considering leaving school early to apply for the NFL draft.

"We've had some conversation, just more of the trying to make sure we're getting good information and not putting this decision before finishing out their careers in a very positive way, or at least this season, whether it's their careers or not remains to be seen," Richt said. "They're definitely thinking about it, but neither one of them has said "I'm definitely" doing it at this point."

Jones considered leaving after his redshirt sophomore year before electing to return.

New facility taking shape

Georgia's temporary "home away from home" is taking shape.

With construction of Georgia's upgraded facilities at Butts-Mehre in full swing, temporary houses have been moved onto what used to be part of the practice field.

Richt explained how they will be used.

"The next time we practice at the Butts-Mehre it will be a whole lot different. I think all our meeting rooms will be in that modular city, our training room will be out there, our weight room will be over at Stegeman," Richt said. "There's an old weight room that we have revived for this next season. There might be some weight workouts in the new weightroom but most will be done in what we're calling "the Dungeon."

Neither Georgia's lockerroom at Butts-Mehre nor the coach's second-floor offices will be affected during the current construction phase.